It's not a project management tool like those from 37Signals: instead, it serves one purpose: get an instant "Approve" or "Deny" on decisions within your organization. We've been testing it internally at Mashable for a number of months, it was proposed in the comments during our hunt for the Best Web Apps for Ideas, and we highlighted it as one of our 270+ Online Business Tools.
How To Get Decisions Made
1. Visit Zapproved, sign up up and click "Create Proposal"
2. Enter the email address of the person you want to approve the proposal
3. Enter the proposal in the text box and send it in
4. That person receives an email with a choice of "Approve", "Deny" or "Comment", and the decision is made.
Zapproved: Pros vs Cons
Having used Zapproved for an extended period, we've seen the advantages, and the disadvantages. These include:
Pros: avoids the ambiguity of decisions made on phone calls; puts a stop to endless carbon copy emails between an entire staff; provides an archive of all decisions for reference and accountability; the Zapproved team is extremely responsive to feedback
Cons: Zapproved quickly becomes another inbox; the "comment" option is the one you usually end up choosing, which just replicates the issue with cc emails
Zapproved might at first sound too simple to be at all useful, and yet you quickly learn that the simplicity is its strength: a very clear cut, black and white decision that prevents the endless back and forth of email. Approved.